Dukav's Daughter
by morbidgypsy
Summary: Chloe is one of a trio that fit in a little less and have higher hopes than much of the wasteland. They go north in search of a lost vault and hoping to at least claim a bit of the wasteland as their own.  Explore new areas and find new things.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer – The OC's are mine. The world and most other things in it are Bethesdas and I claim no ownership of them. I merely play with them for my own amusement. Also for those that care, none of these characters are based on real people and are totally fictional.

I put a high rating on this one and do intend to use it. You have been warned.

"Look you seem pleasant enough, just maybe a little too pleasant." The older woman said with a knowing glance at the two men that flanked Chloe. "We are just asking that you leave Megaton by morning and not… er… make too much noise tonight ok?"

Chloe pasted a perfectly fake smile on her face that didn't bother trying to pass as real. This wasn't the first time that the three of them had been kicked out of a place for being who or what they were. "Not a problem, we are leaving now."

Chloe was the daughter of the great womanizer Dukav, who had killed enough people that they now just avoided him rather than question his lifestyle. She had picked up a few of his proclivities, but not womanizing or the merc duty. Yes, she was sleeping with both of the men that were with her, but no they were not married men. Her father hadn't been there to teach her to shoot, but she ended up being at least as good as he was. So her guns made some people nervous and her lifestyle made others nervous.

Greg was one of the rare humans that managed to live in the wasteland while being an albino. The Family had tried getting him to join them a few times, but they couldn't understand his desire to neither eat people, nor drink their blood so that would never work. The long brown hooded robe he wore kept most of the sun's rays off of him and the gloves finished the work. When traveling he looked a lot like one of the monks that occasionally took pilgrimage across the wasteland.

Michael was the poor random person who on sight looked perfectly normal, but the fact that he was more comfortable with the two of them than anyone else led people to believe that there was something wrong with him as well. Not that there was anything wrong with any of them. They just didn't fit the normal quota. Regardless of assumptions, Michael still had a way about him that just calmed people down and had them opening up to him more than they normally would.

"B-but you were going to fix the water pressure problem that we are having. Don't you still have time to do that?"

"First I am too pleasant and now I am not pleasant enough?" Chloe's eyes narrowed and she turned to leave.

"We just don't want to cause trouble with the married folks in town. That's all. Your Dukav's daughter aren't you?" The woman said as though that explained her request for them to leave. She was ringing her hands in obvious distress.

So it was that complaint today was it? "The wives only want one other whore fucking their husbands?" She threw over her should as she made her way to the town's exit. Her father might be a whore monger and a filthy mouthed bastard, but even he hadn't taken to married women. Well she didn't think he had.

The two men that she was 'too pleasant' with followed her silently, which was not normal so she had a feeling they were a bit pissed too. It wasn't until the screeching of the metal doors closed behind them that anyone said anything and even then it was only the protectron that sat outside. It wished them a pleasant stay in Megaton and she nearly kicked it.

Since Project Purity had gotten up and running a decade ago a lot of places, including Megaton had begun to grow. As the different towns got their own purifiers they were able to sustain bigger populations while slowly ridding the world of the radiation left over from the war. The old shell of metal that had surrounded Megaton now only housed the middle of the city. All the people that had wanted to settle over the years, but had been unable or unwelcome had just started building around the inner circle until it was now three times the size of what it had once been.

"Michael?" An unknown voice called, bringing their angry escape to a sudden end. Michael had turned to see who had called him and now stood with half a grin on his face.

"Tony?" I haven't seen you in years. How are you? Michael seemed pleased by the man's arrival so Chloe and Greg hung back a bit and tried to look friendly. Chloe was having problems due to her mood and Greg having to have the hood up just looked mostly dark and foreboding. Luckily their presence was going unnoticed.

"Alive, barely. You?" And it was true. Everyone bore scars from the wasteland, but this man bore more than his fair share. If he said that he had jumped into spinning vertibird blades no one would have questioned him. The gashes covered every part of him that clothing did not and all of them looked nasty. Any one of them could have killed him by the looks of them and though his had the pink look of healed scars, some of them still burned red with infection. He might be alive, but he was not yet healthy.

"Good. A little annoyed with Megaton right now, but nothing out of the norm." Michael chuckled one of the little chuckles he had that seemed to always amuse those around him, putting them calmly at ease. "Bastards want us to work for them, but don't really want us here. Kind of grates. What happened to you?"

Chloe wasn't sure who this person was, but for Michael to give even that bit of information away meant that there was some history there. She stayed quite in the background. Michael was the talker, which was possibly why Megaton was being bitchy; she had spoken to them.

Tony smiled and some of the scars stretched his face into something that just looked painful. "Well I was out looking for one of those _lost vaults_ but found a den of deathclaws instead. They got me pretty bad, but the damndest thing happened. I am laying there waiting for death to come pick me up and instead one of those Mr. Gutsy things floated up and took out the deathclaws with just a few laser shots. Next thing I know I am waking up with one of the medical versions hovering over me and telling me that everything would be fine. It was the damndest thing."

"Sounds like you were damn lucky." Michael said with a smile. "Where were you looking for this vault? I had thought that the brotherhood had located all of them."

"They had located the ones in this area and back west, but no one has gone too far north lately. The yao guai and deathclaws seem to be more heavily populated up there because of the cooler weather. There are some other freaky looking critters up there too. I couldn't even tell you what they started out as. That vault though is there waiting to be plucked like a virgin's cherry." The lecherous look Tony tried to give was again ruined by the scars, but he didn't seem to realize it. "But I tell you it's there, right in the middle of the old keystone state. Big school that used to be there before everything got nuked."

They left him at Megaton, he was a settler of the outer ring after all. Michael was grinning the entire walk out of there as he led them in a north westerly direction. No one was speaking. Greg was just usually quiet if he wasn't manic and Chloe was just feeling more bitter than usual. The sun was hovering very low on the horizon when Michael finally just stopped walking.

He had them out in the open and still he looked around as though someone could have snuck up on them. Chloe had just opened her mouth to ask him what the fuck he was doing when he finally spoke.

"I know where he was, near abouts."

"And?" Greg asked sarcastically. "Vaults are dangerous places to go poking around in even if we could find it. You heard about the one that was still pumping psychedelics, right?"

"The bigger the risk the bigger the reward." Michael said a little too cryptically for Chloe's taste and she finally did speak up.

"Michael, exactly what are you plotting?"

"Do you want your own place babe?" Michaels grin just got bigger and bigger. He knew that was exactly what she wanted.


	2. Chapter 2

That night they were camped in the shell of a burnt out house, a small fire built in one of the rooms that still had walls, but no ceiling. One of the few things left in it was a tub that looked to be in good enough shape that Chloe wondered why someone hadn't scavenged it. The metal of it alone might have value. As it was Chloe was eyeing it as though she might try to move it herself. Right now she was circling around it, inspecting it in an attempt to ignore the men.

"Michael if we try to go into that territory, chances are we wouldn't come out of it." Greg said reasonably. Since the darkness of night had finally fallen he had removed both his robe and his gloves. His almost translucent seeming hair hung in a straight sheet to his chin, his light purple eyes staring first intently at Michael then out into the darkness, never at the fire. Bright lights hurt his eyes and since he saw better at night than any of them, it was best that he kept his night vision.

"I know a guy," Michael began, "that went looking for that same vault almost twenty years ago. Our first stop is to talk to him, find out where he went and what he did find. See if we can get more details of the trip up there. Tony there couldn't actually remember much."

Chloe stopped her exploring to come back to the fire. Michael had never been so set on doing something and while she wouldn't mind having her own place she also wasn't sure why he was pushing for it now.

"Michael what's up? Why are you so set on doing this? It's dangerous and there is a reason no one else has found it." She sat down next to him, letting both the warmth of him and the fire chase away the chill of the wasteland's night.

Michael lay an arm around her shoulders and with a look called Greg over sit on her opposite side.

Sandwiched between them she felt very warm and wanted. Not just in the sexual manner that she always seemed to crave them, but in the family kind of way that was only gotten when people cared for you just for who you were and not for what you could give them. This was one of those rare moments that she would always treasure.

Michael didn't start speaking for a good long while. He just let them enjoy each other's company. When Greg's arm snaked out to lay across his own, Michael smiled in near contentment. "For the same reason so many others have tried and for the same reason so many other towns have been started up. I feel that we can do better than what is currently available."

Suddenly Greg slid his arm off of them and pulled out his laser pistol. In a near whisper he said a single dreaded word that explained everything to them. "Raiders." It was at night that Greg was in his element.

Michael stood in one smooth and fluid motion of muscle and training that at other times would nearly take her breath away in awe and lust. Now it was just business. Chloe pulled her own laser rifle up from the ground that she had rested it on, this was her business. People expected Greg to be the hand to hand fighter because of how lithe he was, but Michael was the one to be careful of in a hands-on fight. The broader shoulders and heavier muscle was not to be mistaken for any kind of slowness. He had gotten that from the constant work he did to stay in shape and remain fast enough to survive out in the Capital Wasteland.

Chloe pulled her rifle up and started scanning the area through the night vision scope. The remaining walls of the house they were staying in should have been enough to hide the fire, but they had been spotted somehow anyway. This was still hill country, so the raiders might have spotted the fire an hour ago from a taller hill and just have managed to reach them now. She crouched down and slowly moved to peer out from behind one of the walls, looking for a target. There they were.

Four of them, three males, one female and all looking half starved. For them to be even this close to Megaton meant that they were desperate and they certainly looked it. They all seemed to be wearing piecemeal leather armor and the best weapon between them looked like one of the common 10mm. The rest had a baseball bat, a crowbar and an empty bottle. Nothing that she was too worried about, mostly just annoyed. This constantly being attacked was exactly why she wanted a place of her own.

Chloe watched them approach for a few seconds before letting the man with the 10mm line up in the crosshairs. Raiding was a bad bit of work to get into and in some ways it was easier to get out of than it was to get into. She pulled the trigger and her target spun to the side, holding his suddenly bleeding chest. She felt bad that it wasn't a clean kill, but the second bullet cleared her of that guilt. He was now out of the business.

The woman screeched and ran at their small encampment. She ran smack into Michael and was flipped over one of his arms only to land on her back before she could complete the attack that she had been trying for. Michael made better work of her than Chloe had hers. With one of his solid leather boots he stamped down on her throat, twisting and in a move beyond Chloe's knowledge, snapped the woman neck.

One of the raider men turned to run, while the other swung his bat at Michael. None of them seemed to notice Chloe in her little crouched down hiding spot. The familiar zapping sound shot out and Greg took the fleeing one in the center of the back. There was a difference between cold blooded and stupidly leaving an enemy to come back for you later. Greg knew the difference.

Michael calmly caught the bat, using its momentum to increase the curve of the swing until it went full circle and smacked the raider in the stomach. Michaels hand slipped down the bat and twisted to break the raider's wrist. The raider howled for a few seconds before Michael brought the man's head down to meet his knee and then suddenly there were no more raiders to deal with.

No real fight for any of them, but the less fighting the longer the life and any fight brought out the adrenaline.

"I am sick of getting attacked out here. This is another reason we need our own place." He said, wiping his hands on his pants. "And an untouched vault would have everything we need to attract a community and defend against raiders. And we would be able to supplement what it can't do without own skills."

Chloe realized that Michael was actually very angry, there was a tone in his voice that she wasn't sure she had ever heard before. "Micha-"

"The raiders are getting more vicious as they lose ground to the growing communities around here and we are left with two choices. Either we join one of the communities that don't want us or make our own. To do anything else is to just ask for a messy death because no one can watch their backs all the time. Sooner or later we would slip up and that would be the end of it."

Greg clenched his jaw and stared at the stars as he moved closer to Michael. "All or nothing?" He asked when he was nearly side by side with the other man.

"It's looking more and more like that. We are some of the few outcasts that are neither raiders or criminals." Criminal being a very loosely bound label anymore. "We will not have slaves, and we will not turn away mutants or ghouls. Hell some ghouls are old enough to know things that could be useful to know about the vaults."

"Some of them might have even built the vaults." Chloe muttered as she picked her way over to the two men. "So where do we head first? You said you know a man…"


End file.
